Schools do not have enough staff to make SEND reforms work, union warns. 3 days ago. Branwen Jeffreys,Education Editorand. Hayley Clarke,Education reporter. Getty. Schools do not have enough staff to achieve the government’s aims of providing support for more children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools, England’s largest teaching union has said.. Daniel Kebede, National Education Union (NEU) general secretary, said the “overwhelming” feeling of teachers was inclusion couldn’t be done “on the cheap”.. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg ministers were “investing more” to support young people in need.. In February, the government announced major reforms to the SEND system in England, including bringing in “inclusion bases” – dedicated spaces for pupils with SEND – in all schools.. The Department for Education (DfE) said it had announced “once-in-a-generation SEND reforms to put inclusion at the heart of education”.. The government has commited an extra £4bn between now and 2029 to prepare schools before the main changes begin to come into force.. Of that extra funding, £1.6bn will go directly to early years, schools and colleges over the next three years as part of an “inclusion fund” to prepare for change.. A further £1.8bn will fund extra expert support for schools to call on during the transition, with some more money for training and local authorities too.. Phillipson referred to this extra funding when asked about the NEU’s comments on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.. “We’re investing more. I announced as part of the reforms we set out around SEND an extra £4bn that’s going into the support that young people need,” she said.. “I’m determined to transform this system, to deliver better life chances for children. We are investing up front to make that happen.”. The NEU has said the funding is not high enough to achieve the government’s goals.. It argues the inclusion money will equate to a part-time teaching assistant for the average primary school, and two teaching assistants for the average secondary.. Kebede said schools would struggle to fund an increase in teachers’ pay of even 2% next year from their budgets, and the inclusion fund would “merely soften the blow of underfunding”.. “I think everybody recognises that the government has difficult economic choices to make,” Kebede said. “However, if there is investment in education today, government will save much more money in the future.”. PA. Ahead of its annual conference in Brighton, the NEU carried out a snapshot survey of its members, saying the sample of 10,300 teachers and 3,000 support staff who responded had been adjusted to reflect the school workforce.. According to the union, 86% of teachers responding said insufficient staff was a barrier to inclusion, followed by 73% who identified workload as a barrier.. Teachers and support staff also expressed concerns about class sizes, training an
